Recent History

[Zen]

This is an AU (Alternate Universe) 10th Pass Pern where AIVAS never happened and the long intervals were a natural part of the Red Star’s eccentric orbit. Thread still falls and the developments that happened after the discovery of AIVAS haven’t happened (Starsmiths, etc.). Here is the story of the significant things that have happened since the end of the 9th Pass.

It was the last Turn of the Pass. Lessa was old. Ramoth was old. Yet she still rose, though most speculated that it would be the great Gold’s last rising. Her clutches had gotten smaller, both because of her age as well as because the Pass was coming to an end. It was a successful Flight, if not as long as the Flights of her youth. Only a couple sevendays after Ramoth’s flight a Green fell out of the sky suddenly, without warning, in the middle of drills. The dragonhealers said the Green was dead before she hit the ground, the fall killed her rider.

No one had ever seen anything quite like it before. The dragonhealers did their best to determine the cause, but before long another such incident occurred, this time with a Blue. Fearing the spread of whatever this might be, Lessa ordered a quarantine of Benden and sent word to the other Weyrs, asking if they had experienced the same. They had.

No one could say why it was happening, or where this disease, if that was what it was, came from. So far, only Blues and Greens and succumbed to it. Not one single Brown, Bronze, or Gold fallen from the sky, which simply made it stranger still, and also reinforced many mindsets that Blues and Greens were indeed lesser colors. There were no signs, no symptoms to indicate if a Dragon was sick with this mystery or not, they simply dropped from the sky or kept flying. Many good Dragons and riders alike were lost, and still the Browns, Bronzes, and Golds remained untouched. Or so it seemed.

Gravid with eggs, Ramoth’s hide began to dull. Dragonhealers could not say what was wrong, she seemed as healthy as ever, considering her age. She continued to lose her golden shine, her hide dulling to a sickly grayish gold. Lessa fretted, but Ramoth only reassured her that she felt just fine. That was only all the more worrying. All of the Dragons that had dropped from the sky had felt fine as well, as far as anyone could remember, before they died. Some of the Bronzeriders and Brownriders were noticing a change in their Dragons’ color as well. The Bronzes darkened, took on a blackish shade and lost most of their shine while the Browns took on a reddish hue. All of them reported that they felt just fine.

Finally Ramoth’s clutch was laid. Everyone was surprised to see what seemed like a silvery egg among the clutch, but there was no Gold. No one had really expected there to be one; Ramoth had not clutched a Gold in some time. The clutch was larger than most had been hoping for with 15 eggs. However, soon after they were laid, Ramoth pronounced nearly half of them dead already. Seven of the newly laid eggs were removed from the sands and buried, leaving a paltry eight, including the strange silvery egg and one very small egg.

As the eggs hardened, the loss of the Weyrs’ Blue and Green Dragons slowed. It seemed the epidemic, whatever it had been, was tapering off. Most of the Blue and Green population had been decimated, however, and everyone was thankful that it was the last Turn of the Pass, and nearly over at that, or the disaster could have been, and would have been, much, much worse. Only 10% of the original Blue and Green population had survived. Many Browns, Bronzes, and Golds had slowly changed their color slightly as well, and this was finally attributed to the same epidemic that had been killing the Blues and Greens, though no one knew why it had affected the colors differently.

The day came when Ramoth’s clutch hatched. A Blue hatched first, Impressing to a young man. Two Greens followed. A large egg wobbled, shook, broke open. Everyone stared in silence as a pitch black Dragonet emerged from the shattered shell. Black? There had never been a Black before, not ever. Was this a new, strange mutation, like the White Ruth? But the Black was large, had hatched on its own, and soon Impressed to a confident-looking young man on the sands who had been just as shocked as everyone else at the Black’s hatching, but had soon forgotten his new dragon’s strange coloring and proudly announced that his name was Onyth.

Two more eggs hatched, almost simultaneously, revealing a deep, violet-red and a bright red-orange. What color were these two, even? Were they the same color? No one knew. There were no females on the sands, there was no Gold, after all. The two strange colored Dragons stared about and finally stumbled toward the stands, Impressing to two women, though it was later found that the two Dragonets were actually males themselves. As those in the stands were orienting themselves after these strange hatchings, a White broke from the tiny egg off to the side.

Wait, a White? Hatching on its own? But Ruth had to have his shell broken for him. The White shook itself briefly and plodded over to Impress another young man on the sands. Baffled as everyone was by the hatching of another White, they didn’t see that the strange silvery egg was finally hatching. Everyone gasped as a Grey hatchling broke out and sat staring around at everything, looking rather bewildered. Was this new dragonet about to die? Surely it was, with such a grey hide! But the Grey let out an angry screech, suddenly, that told everyone in the crowd it certainly had a healthy pair of lungs. It hissed at the Candidates on the sands and paced angrily before them. Males, all of them were males. Where were the females? The Grey turned and charged toward the stands, eliciting a few screams from women nearby. Then it abruptly stopped before a young woman in the stands and sat patiently as she stepped out onto the sands and took the Grey’s head in her hands, announcing that the Grey’s name was Silveth and she wanted to know why no females were presented for her.

With that the hatching was over and everyone was left scrambling to figure out why there were suddenly new colors, why no Bronzes or Browns had hatched, how a White had hatched on its own. Luckily, because the Interval was about to start, they had 200 Threadfree Turns to figure it out. It was determined that the epidemic had changed something in the Dragons and created the new colors. Looking at the changes in the color of previous Golds, Bronzes, and Browns and then at the newly hatched Colors, deemed Grey, Black, and Burgundy, it was concluded that the Grey may have been a Gold originally but when Ramoth became infected while the eggs were still developing within her, the disease had infected and changed the dragonets before they had really begun to develop. Likewise, the Black was suspected to have perhaps been a Bronze originally, and the Burgundies, Browns. It was also concluded, as further clutches would prove, that the disease had actually done something to weaken the shells of White Dragons and make them physically stronger so that they could now hatch on their own, and they became slightly less of a rarity during the Interval, but were rarer than Golds. All of the new colors were smaller than the color they were originally intended to be, ‘stunted’ by the disease, but it was found that Greys could still clutch, and more often than Golds as well.

Only Ramoth’s last clutch excluded Golds, Bronzes, and Browns, all clutches afterward included them once more, as well as the new colors. A new hierarchy established itself in the Weyrs, Golds and Bronzes were still on top, but under them were Greys and Blacks. Browns seemed to be above Burgundies in rank, but the two colors became about equal in numbers as the Interval wore on. Blues and Greens retained their old positions at the bottom of the heap and grew more numerous again. It seemed the Blues and Greens that hatched out now were immune to the strange disease that killed so many of their brethren before.

Pern has gotten used to the three new colors now and with the Interval drawing to a close, their study of them comes to an end as well. The new colors show up in Wher and Firelizard clutches even. It is almost like they have always been around at this point.

Besides the epidemic at the beginning of the Interval and the appearance of the three new colors, the small Western Continent has recently been settled in the form of Western Weyr and Hold. The young Talaria and Gold Orlaith along with a small following of riders and interested Holders and Crafters traveled to the Western Continent about 10 Turns ago and have been working hard to make the continent as livable as possible before Threadfall begins. More interested folk trickled to the Western Continent over those 10 Turns and both Weyr and Hold are doing quite well so far. Gold Orlaith has recently laid a clutch, her second Grey egg ever laid among them, as well as her first Gold, as if she is preparing her new Weyr for the return of Thread by providing it with more clutching females. Candidates are being Searched for the hardening eggs every day. Since the appearance of Burgundies and their strange preference for females as their riders even though they themselves are males, females have been allowed to Stand for Impression for other than Golds (and Greys) and also Impress the majority of Greens.

More on the epidemic. The Pernese don't really know this, but for anyone wondering, the epidemic attacked the very DNA of the ones it infected. In Golds, Bronzes, and Browns it simply altered their DNA, but for some reason was lethal to most Blues and Greens. The Blues and Greens that survived the epidemic were and are immune to it. Those seven eggs of Ramoth's that she proclaimed as dead? They were Blues and Greens that were attacked by the epidemic while still developing and were not immune to it, while the Blue and two Greens that hatched were immune from the beginning. All Dragons (and Whers and Firelizards) of the 10th Pass carry the altered DNA, EXCEPT the Blues and Greens, therefore nearly every clutch laid will have the new colors in them. The only way to get a clutch consisting of only the original colors is for a Blue Firelizard to catch a Green Firelizard. As neither of them have the altered DNA all resulting eggs would only be of the original colors, but as Greens are such bad mothers the whole clutch is just as likely to be lost and eaten by predators.